The Washington Capitals killed off a two-minute five-on-three Boston Bruins power play in the first period, which could have even been classified as a five-on-two advantage when Brooks Laich broke his stick. The Bruins managed seven shots on net in the first twenty minutes – three from the ever-dangerous Torey Krug – and Braden Holtby, who was tremendous, stopped them all.

Holtby did, however, have to make one ten-bell save. On himself.

Yes, it was the hardest save he made all period.

GIF by Ian Oland

As the Bruins dumped the puck in on a hard-around, the normally sure-handed Holtby left his crease to play it. Instead of the biscuit laying flat on his blade, it bounced high into the air back towards the crease. Wuh oh.

Holtby, seeing Bruins forward Shawn Thornton hustling towards the net, then played the puck, inching it even closer to the goal line before knocking it away.

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Looks like Grubauer from last Saturday’s Bears game. He chested it into the air then, in an attempt to swat it into the corner, smacked it right into his own net against the Crunch

Owen Johnson

I think TD Garden has bad boards. I saw the puck bounce weirdly a few times and maybe this is a result of that.
Or maybe it’s just a gaffe. Thank God nothing came of it.

Steve Killmon

Inching it even closer? Nah, toe drag between the legs. Total pro. 😛

VeggieTart

Luckily Holtby managed to keep that out of the net. For the most part, he’s looked good otherwise through two.

JenniferH

As Joe B. said, thank goodness he has such good stick-handling moves. That could have been very, very sad.

Graham Dumas

Roman Z, where are you to tell me how wrong I am when I say it’s good that Holtby handles the puck a lot? 🙂 Seriously, that coulda been REEEEEEEALLY bad.

Roman Z.

Hahaha when I watched the game this “morning” and saw that, I RIGHT away thought about our mini discussion. Don’t worry, I had a satisfied smirk on my face too!

Roman Z.

Not sure if serious

Graham Dumas

Heh. But he did have the “third assist” on Ovi’s sweet second goal: very tasty pass to Ward, I think, right? That’s hard to do with a goalie stick, for sure.

Graham Dumas

If you watch closely (and I didn’t see this live, so I could be wrong), but it seems like the bad bounce comes off the boards, not holtby’s stick. Where he actually plays it is when he knocks it back and to the side, away from the threat. That IS skillful, if you ask me.

factoryofsadness

Stop it holts. That’s Erat’s job.

Andrew Walker

Having watched the animation, this is indeed what it looks like! Seeing it live, it really did look like a bobble. Seeing it here, it looks as if what appeared to be unintentional flailing is actually Hotby’s attempt to redirect him and cut his pursuit of the puck off with his right leg. Pro indeed!

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